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2020 Supreme(Guj) 892
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
Vikram Nath, J.B. Pardiwala, JJ.
Raghav Sanjay Gupta – Appellant
Versus
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad – Respondent
R/Letters Patent Appeal No. 388 of 2020, In R/Special Civil Application No. 7804 of 2020 with Civil Application (For Direction) No. 1 of 2020
Decided On : 01-10-2020
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :Mr. Navin Pahwa, Sr. Advocate With Mr. Tirth Nayak
For the Respondent: Mr. Nandish Y Chudgar
Point of Law: The role of statutory expert bodies on education and role of courts are well defined by a simple rule. If it is a question of education policy or an issue involving academic matter, the court should keep their hands off. If any provision of law or principle of law has to be interpreted, applied or enforced with reference to or connected with education, the court will step in. This is what the Supreme Court observed way back in the year 2009 in the case of All India Council for Technical Education (supra). This decision of the Supreme Court has been rightly referred to by the learned Single Judge in paragraph 19 of the impugned judgment.
Headnote:
Constitution of India, 1950 - Articles 14 and 19 - IIM Act - Sections 7(e) and 8(3) - Analytical Written Test - Process of selection - Prescription of marks for the personal interview - To issue appropriate writ, direction or order to quashing and set aside Respondent’s selection process whereby 50% weightage is given to personal interview and only 25% CAT score which is produced in Annexure-B as same is arbitrary, discriminatory and illegal – Petitioner invoked jurisdiction of High Court under Article 226 of Constitution of Indiaonly after he found that his name does not figure in merit list prepared by Commission - This conduct of Petitioner clearly disentitles him from questioning selection and High Court did not commit any error by refusing to entertain writ petition.
Facts of the case: To issue appropriate writ, order or direction to Respondent to set aside Respondent’s selection process also on ground of providing 10% weightage to AWT as compared to 25% weightage to CAT score and 15% weightage to previous academic/professional score as being unjust, unreasonable, arbitrary, in contrary to settled legal position and also violative of Articles 14 and 19 of Constitution - To issue appropriate writ, order or direction to Respondent to revise final merit based selection list of candidates for course of post graduate programme of Respondent institute through CAT-2019 on basis of settled law which determines not more than 15% weightage to oral interview on basis of questions which are directly connected with course/programme in question and to make admissions on basis of such revised final merit based list, in interest of justice and equity .
Findings of the court: There is one another important aspect taken note of by the learned Single Judge. The learned Single Judge has taken notice of the fact, and in our opinion, very rightly, that the appellant herein participated in the admission process being fully aware of the standard of assessment laid down in the prospectus. Once having participated in the admission process, being very much aware of the fact that the final selection would be based on a diverse set of attributes, which includes performances in the CAT, AWT and PI, thereafter, on being unsuccessful, the appellant cannot come to a writ court and complain that the policy of the respondent in allocating 50% marks to the viva voce test is unreasonable and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
Result: Appeal dismissed.
JUDGMENT :
J.B. PARDIWALA, J.
1. This Appeal under clause 15 of the Letters Patent is at the instance of an unsuccessful writ-applicant of a writ-application and is directed against the judgment and order passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court dated 28th July 2020 in the Special Civil Application No.7804 of 2020, by which the learned Single Judge rejected the writ-application filed by the appellant herein.
2. The facts giving rise to this Appeal may be summarised as under :
3. The appellant herein came before this Court by filing the Special Civil Application No.7804 of 2020, praying for the following reliefs:
“(A) To issue appropriate writ, direction or order to quashing and set aside the Respondent’s selection process whereby 50% the weightage is given to personal interview and only 25% CAT score which is produced in Annexure-B as the same is arbitrary, discriminatory and illegal;
(AA) To issue appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondent to set aside the Respondent’s selection process also on the ground of providing 10% weightage to AWT as compared to 25% weightage to CAT score and 15% weightage to the previous academic/professional score as being unjust, unreasonable, arbitrary, in contrary to settled legal position and also violative of Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution of India.
(AB) To issue appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondent to revise the final merit based selection list of the candidates for the course of post graduate programme of the Respondent institute through CAT-2019 on the basis of settled law which determines not more than 15% weightage to oral interview on the basis of the questions which are directly connected with the course/programme in question and to make admissions on the basis of such revised final merit based list, in the interest of justice and equity.
(AC) To issue appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondent to record the oral interview of all the candidates for all the programmes and courses and supply a copy thereof on demand by a candidate, in the interest of justice and equity.
(B) Pending hearing, admission and final disposal of this petition, direct the Respondent;
1. To keep one seat vacant for admission to 2020-2022 batch of PGP course;
2. Disclose the break up marks obtained by the last successful candidate, last wait listed candidate in general category and the Petitioner under each head including CAT marks and Personal Interview.
(BB) Pending hearing, admission and final disposal of this petition, direct the Respondent to grant provisional admission to the Petitioner to the course/programme of the Respondent institute through CAT – 2019;
(BC) Pending hearing, admission and final disposal of this petition, direct the Respondent to provide a copy of video/audio record of the oral interview of the Petitioner as conducted on 12/02/2020 by the interview panel.”
(C) To pass any other and further order that this Hon’ble Court may deem fit;
(D) To provide for the cost of this petition;”
4. The appellant herein, along with 2,44,000 other students, appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT) conducted by the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, in 2019 for the Post Graduate Programme in Management 2020-2022 batch. The appellant secured 206.86 marks in the CAT 2019 examination, thereby securing 99.95 percentile. He secured a rank in the top 10 students across the country.
5. The appellant, thereafter, was shortlisted for the next round of Analytical Written Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI) by the Institute. He received a call-letter dated 6th January 2020 for the purpose of appearing in the AWT and PI. It is his case that he holds a certificate issued by the Director, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, U.K., certifying that he has completed a Strategic Professional ACCA Examination, which is an internationally recognized and accep
